1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION:
This invention relates to the field of inspecting and packaging bulk amounts of loose ammunition cartridges into containers to be packaged.
2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
Typically, ammunition cartridges such as 0.38 caliber cartridges, are manufactured and initially handled in bulk amounts by weight. The cartridges are then either sorted and placed in packaging boxes manually which is extremely slow and laborious or dumped into a vibratory shaker such as the CASE VIBRATORY INSPECTION TABLE manufactured by Rosan Enterprises, Newport Beach, Calif.
The vibratory shakers use a reservoir by which the loose ammunition is dumped into, and a shaking table which vibrates the loose ammunition downward into position in rows of slots. The cartridges are kept from falling through by the rims of the cartridges. The cartridges can then be partially inspected, counted and then manually deposited into containers.
The vibratory shakers are limited to a particular size of cartridge. The shakers are also unable to handle rimless cartridges such as 9 mm cartridges. There is limited visual inspection and the speed of the operation limited by the speed of the manual labor of the operator.
There currently exists a need for an apparatus which will automatically load a variety of differing sizes of rim and rimless cartridges in a high speed operation and allow visual inspection of the cartridges for defects.
3. Solution to the problem:
The present invention provides an apparatus which will load bulk loose ammunition in an automatic high speed operation regardless of the size or whether the cartridges are rim or rimless. The invention also allows the operator to inspect the entire cartridge as it is being loaded into containers.
The apparatus is operated by one to two people without requiring intensive repetitive manual labor.
The apparatus is easily converted to sort and load various sizes of ammunition cartridges.
These and other objects of the invention will be described by the description of the preferred embodiment in conjunction with the drawings.